Eric Reynolds On My Blithe Rationalizations For The Harm Done Through Multiple Variant Covers posted October 10, 2013
I kind of disagree with your blithe rationalization as to why Walking Dead variant covers aren't that big a deal. Although Image appears to be a well-run company these days, the company's past irresponsibilities financially ruined many a retailer in the 1990s with its pernicious and reckless publishing strategies. They almost crippled the entire direct market. Walking Dead is a popular enough title that it shouldn't need to rely on such a blatant stunt, especially when such gimmickry has such a fraught history.
Variant covers are still the junk bonds of the comic book industry and I've learned to resent them even more over the past couple of years because I often go to the comic book store with my five year-old daughter and she gets frustrated and confused by the variant covers for every single issue of My Little Pony, every month. They exist for no reason other than publisher greed.